Improvement in fire-arms



A.. S. BALLARD@ Pire-Arm.

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Wmme@ Patented Ot. 29,1878.

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l UNITED STATES.

PATENT OEEIGE.

ALVAN s. BALLARD, 0E wATEEvrLL-E, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 209,444, dated October29, 1878; application filed April 16, 187e.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALVAN S. BALLARD, of Waterville, in the county ot'Oneida and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Fire-Arms, of which the following is a description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.

This invention is more particularly designed to be applied to revolversand other pistols, and has for its object the giving of fuller or bettercommand over the arm or weapon when ring it by securing for it asteadier hold.

The invention relates to a thumb brace arranged to project laterallyfrom the arm in proximity to the hammer, and serving as a rest for thethumb when aiming with and ringthe arm.

The invention consists in a thumb brace or rest arranged to projectlaterally from the larm in proximity to the hammer and hinged to theside of the arm, so that it may be shut up or within the side of the armwhen not in rise, and thus be out of the way when carrying the arm inthe pocket or elsewhere. j

Furthermore, the invention consists in a combination, with the firingmechanism of the arm and a thumb-brace hinged to the side of the arm inproximity to the hammer, of means for automatically throwing said bracedown or out when cooking the hammer, to form a rest for the thumb, andfor automatically closing said brace against or within the side of thearm after the latter has been red.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 represents a side view of arevolver having my invention applied 5 Fig. 2, a sectional view, upon alarger scale, taken upon the irregular line :v in Fig. l; and Fig. 3, atransverse section on the irregular line y y in Fig. 2.

1n the application of the invention as shown in the drawing, the thumbbrace or rest is represented as hinged to the side of the arm and ascombined with means for automatically opening and closing it; but saidbrace or thumb-rest may be simply a hinged one, to be closed by hand,according to the quality H is the thumb-brace, pivoted at b b. to the Iframe, face-plate of the lock, or other portion of the side of the arm,inv proximity to the hammer, and so that wh en extended or thrown out,as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3, it forms a rest for the thumb whentaking aim with or firing the arm, and by giving greater 'steadiness to,increases the command over, the arm. Said thumb brace or rest may beVformed of a metal plate, and be either flat, concave, or other suitableform on the surface on which the thumb rests. shut up against the sideof the arm or to enter a recess therein, so that when closed it is outof the way when carrying the arm in the pocket or elsewhere. Whenextended it has a shouldered or other suitable rest against the side ofthe arm to keep it extended.

Pivoted to the thumb-brace H is an arm, d, arranged to enter a recess,e, in the hammer E, and so that when cooking the hammer an inclinedplane, f, forming one of the walls of said recess, acts upon the arm dto extend or throw the brace out from the position represented for it byfull lines in Fig. 3 to the position represented for it by dotted linesin said ligure, such action taking place against the tension of aspring, g, within or applied to the brace, and serving to close thelatter, as represented by Vfull lines in Fig. 3, when the pistol isfired or hammer is down, and the inclined plane f allows of the arm dbeing projected sufficiently inward within the recess e. It is not,however, absolutely necessary that a spring should be used toautomatically close the thumb-brace H against or within the side of thearm when'it is not required to be thrown out to form a rest for thethumb in aiming with or ring the arm, as the trigger or the hammer,either directly or indirectly, may have combined with them various meansIt may be made either to` lfor both opening and closing the thumb-v'brace.

I claim- 1. The combination, with the fire-arm, of a thumb brace orrest, hinged to the side of the arm in proximity to the hammer, andarranged to admit of its projection laterally from the side of the armand to close up against or within the latter, essentially as described.

2. The combination, with the irin g mechanism of the arm and athumb-'brace or rest hinged to the side of the arm in proximity to thehammer, of means for automatically throwing said brace down or out andof subsequently raising or closing it, substantially as and for thepurposes herein set forth.

ALVAN S. BALLARD. Witnesses:

CHAs. A. DANIELs, R. S. BALLARD.

